LibertyChurch

Sermons / Psalms

November 20, 2016

Thanksgiving and Gratefulness

Dr. David J. Vaughan · Psalms

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Praise, Rejoice, and Give Thanks

Psalm 150. As we head into the Thanksgiving season, I wanted to speak today on Thanksgiving.

Not the day, but the actual attitude of Thanksgiving. Psalm 150 says, praise the Lord. Praise God in the sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise him for his mighty acts. him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the lute and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise him with loud cymbals. Praise him with clashing cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sounds important to me. What do you think? There are dozens if not hundreds of exhortations to praise God, bless God, exalt God, extol God, honor God, etc, etc, many, many, many, many, many. We’re told to praise Him. We’re also told, if you want turn to Philippians for a moment in chapter 4 to rejoice in the Lord.

Philippians 4, Paul says this in verse 4, he says in Philippians 4:4, rejoice in the Lord when you feel like it. You sure the Greek doesn’t say that? Rejoice in the Lord on Sunday only. Rejoice in the Lord always, amen. And again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is near or at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be known unto God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. First Thessalonians chapter 5, we read this.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 again, rejoice always and pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. [audio unclear] Many, many, many, many, many exhortations to either praise and worship God or to rejoice, to extol, to be thankful. Do I have to read any more scriptures to prove that? I mean, they’re all over. Just read the book of Psalms. Read the Psalms this week and it’s everywhere. And that’s just one book. So it’s clear that God exhorts and some of these are probably even imperative so they’re He even commands us to worship Him, to thank Him, to be grateful. But this raises two concerns in some people’s minds. One concern was brought to me years ago by a young woman that I led to Christ in my youth ministry. And she began to read the Bible. She came to me one day and said, I’ve been reading the Old Testament and reading through Psalms and God’s always telling us to praise Him. She said, he sounds like he’s kind of an egomaniac. Like he’s always focused on himself. What’s that? Yep, all right. Another concern, I’ll address that one in a moment, that is often raised is how can God tell us to rejoice when joy is a feeling? Can God command feelings? Can he command me to feel something that I’m not feeling? So let’s deal with the first concern first. This is my introduction. The first concern is no, God is not an egomaniac. He doesn’t need our gratitude. He doesn’t need our praise because being God, He is independent, He is self-existent and God needs nothing. God needs no one. God didn’t need to create. He didn’t need to create the angels because God being a triune being, God had fellowship and eternity passed with himself. God had worship and praise in the Trinity because they appreciated and loved one another. So God didn’t need the created order, but he did create and he created the angelic host and we know that some of the angels, what their job is, is to praise God continually saying holy, holy, holy as they surround the throne. Wouldn’t you like to have that job? Just worship God all day long. That’s their job, worship God. That’s really our job too. We just haven’t learned it yet. So even if it was just angelic hosts praising God, God didn’t need us, right? He doesn’t need our praise, he’s got the angels praising him. And even if the angels weren’t there, God praises, affirms, appreciates, and loves himself via the persons of the Trinity. He has fellowship. So God needs nothing. He doesn’t need our praise, he doesn’t need our worship. So when he exhorts us and commands us to praise him or to rejoice in him, it’s not ultimately about him. But he also demonstrates that he’s not an egomaniac because he is other centered. Other centered. What do I mean? What I mean is that when you read scripture, even though there’s this strong emphasis on ultimately everything being about the glory of God, God didn’t need to make anything to bring Him glory. He was already glorious. We add nothing to him. In fact, as much as philosophers, and I would even say even liberal theologians, try to use the problem of pain against God, the fact is I believe the created order cost God more than it cost humanity. Because when God created, God at the same time decided that he would become a man and die, that he would suffer. We cannot comprehend the spiritual, mainly spiritual, but even the physical sufferings of Jesus Christ. What it meant to leave glory, what it meant to be rejected by men, what it meant that the wrath of God, God, the wrath of God fell upon the Son for our sins. We cannot comprehend what our salvation, meaning the created order, the redemption of the world, what it cost the Godhead. But I think it costs God more than it cost us. That’s why scripture says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So no, God’s not an egomaniac. The other concern often raises is this thing of rejoicing. Can God command us to rejoice if joy is a feeling. Well God actually doesn’t command us to feel anything because feelings as feelings emotions cannot be commanded. But gratitude which is an attitude can be commanded. As a matter of fact we see the same concern raised regarding love. The Bible tells us to love one another. But because we think of love in subjective and emotive terms, we’re like, well how can you tell me to love? Love’s a feeling. Well love actually isn’t a feeling.

Liking someone’s a feeling, but loving them isn’t. So when the Bible, we are commanded to love those that we may not even like. So when the word exhorts us or commands us to rejoice in the Lord. It’s not saying feel something. It’s really saying recognize something. And we’re going to get to that in a moment. It’s not feel, it’s recognize.

The Only Right Response

So we are told to give thanks, which is an act. We are told to rejoice, which is a profession, but we’re never told to feel. But as we do rejoice, as we do give thanks as an act of obedience, as we do focus our mind on God and his benefits, guess what happens? The feelings begin to follow. So if God didn’t tell us to thank him or worship him to be grateful because he’s an egomaniac. Or if he didn’t tell us to do that because… why is thankfulness so important in the Bible? And when I say so important, as you read scripture, it’s very important. Yet it’s one of those mundane virtues, you know what I mean by that? Why does God tell us to do this? Well, I’m gonna give you In other words, thankfulness is the only right response to the true nature of our [audio unclear] our relationship with God. Let me say it again. Because some of us may not [audio unclear] relationship with God. In other words, if we really understood our relationship to God, and I don’t just mean as redeemed people, but I just mean as people. If we truly understood our indebtedness to God, We, we would understand the only proper response to that indebtedness is gratitude and thankfulness.

So it is a matter of seeing what is true about God and man.

David, and Our Dependence on God

David got this. King David got this. Look at 1 Chronicles 29. If you can’t find it, it’s right before 2 Chronicles.

First Chronicles 29 after Kings, does that help? First Chronicles 29 verse 10, therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly and [audio unclear] the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and and to to give strength to all. Now therefore our God, we thank you. Having recognized that, we thank you. And praise your glorious name.

But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things, all things come from you. And of your own we have given you. We are aliens and pilgrims before you, as are all our fathers, our days on earth or as a shadow and without hope. Oh Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and it’s all your own.“ In other words, everything that we have comes from you and everything that we’re now giving back to you really is yours anyway. This is like, you know, if you have a little kid, you know, Christmas is coming, Daddy I want to buy you a present but I don’t have any money. Okay, here’s five bucks, go buy me something. That’s exactly what David is telling us. That whatever we give, not only whatever we give, but whatever we have ultimately comes from God. We cannot give God anything that is not really already His because He is the source of everything we have. That is the true nature of things. That is the reality between God and man because the created order, whether we’re talking an Adam, a worm or a human being or an angel, the created order is absolutely dependent on God for every bit of its very existence. The very breath that we breathe for that we are dependent on God. Every beat of our heart for that we are dependent on God. Every blessing we experience, every sunset, every monetary gift, everything that we have is a blessing from God and is dependent upon him. That’s the true nature of things because God is the only being who is self-existent and independent, and we are not self-existent, but we are dependent on God. In light of that, everything that [audio unclear] as things are. The only logical response is gratitude. But God tells us to be thankful also because it is good for us.

Thankfulness Is Good for Us

It’s good for us to be thankful. It’s good for us to praise Him. Us. Why? Well the first reason I basically already hinted at, and that is that gratitude aligns us with truth. It aligns us with truth, the true nature of things. I remember one day realizing that even in order for me to sin, God had to give me being. The very moment that I’m sinning against God, the very moment that I’m sinning against him in my heart, he’s giving me breath in life. I can’t even sin against God if he doesn’t uphold me. That’s how dependent we are. Ultimately, we can not only do nothing, we cannot even be anything, because we can’t even be apart from God. He is the fountain of life. He is the one who upholds us, gives us breath in life. And that’s the truth. And thus, when we are exhorted to be grateful, we’re being exhorted to bring our minds in line with the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. And this applies to all the exhortations in the Bible about praising God or giving thanks to God. It is to bring our minds in a line with what is true about God. And in a moment we’ll look at some of the Psalms and how often we’re told to give thanks or praise the Lord and then we’re given a reason why. But it’s to get our focus on what is true about God and what is true about our relationship with Him. And when we do this, this is the second benefit of why it’s good for us, it produces this wonderful quality called humility. Humility. Another mundane virtue. And humility is the prerequisite for blessing in your life. James 5’6”, please go there. You probably know it by memory, but I want to look at it anyway. James 5-6. Did I say 5-6? I meant 4-6, I’m sorry. James 4-6. In James 4-6, James says, but he gives more grace. Now he’s talking about the fact that the church is writing to hear they’re quarreling and fighting and all these things are going on. In verse 5 he says, or do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? The spirit who dwells on us yearns jealousy, It’s better, I believe, to translate the spirit who dwells on us yearns to envy. In other words, it was because of human envy that they were having these fights. He says, but God gives more grace. In other words, the envy and the lust of the human heart can be overcome because God gives more grace.

Therefore he says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. If at any time you are being proud in God is resisting us. Think about that. That’s a scary thought. That God is opposed to us at that time when that is our attitude. So we’re exhorted to be humble, to humble ourselves. He says here in verse seven, submit therefore, submit to God. If you wanna be blessed, the place of blessing is on your face. The place of grace is on your face. You can tweet that. Okay, it rhymes. It’s good. It’s good, isn’t it? It’s true. The place of grace is on your face. Now we all want to be blessed, right? You don’t want to be blessed. I do. I want God’s richest blessings. But you don’t get that without a transformation going on, which involves bringing you, bringing us to a place of humility because humility is what God blesses. The very first beatitude is blessed are the the poor in spirit. It is humility. We’re told by Isaiah, God, the high, lofty God, the exalted God. Where does he dwell? Isaiah says he dwells with those who have a humble and contrite spirit. That’s where he dwells. Not those that have the best worship team, not those that have the best preacher. God dwells where there is humility.

So God tells us to look at him, praise, worship, focus on him, and if we truly see God for who he is we shrink in comparison. You know what I’m saying? Calvin and his Institutes, the first book, it’s a book about knowing God and knowing oneself and he argues that that you cannot know the one without the other. And the more you know God as he is revealed in the Word, the more you will see thine own sinfulness. And it’s a truth that the people that have been recognized as heroes of the faith and great saints have one thing in common the more they walked with the Lord the more they felt like failures the more they walk with the Lord the more they saw their own sinfulness the more they walked with the Lord the more they pled for grace and forgiveness and it seems like a contradiction because you think the The more you walk with the Lord, the more holy you’re going to be. But being holy and seeing one’s sinfulness are not contradictory. They’re not contradictory. The more we walk into the light, the more we see the darkness within. And so that’s a good thing because it makes us low. It makes us low. And that’s the place of blessing. You know, we just all need to learn that God doesn’t need our wisdom. God doesn’t need your advice. When you pray, you don’t need to tell God what to do. He’s quite capable of running the universe, okay? So as Paul says, quoting Isaiah, who has been the Lord’s counselor? Not me. So we need to take the low place, acknowledging our utter indebtedness to God, our utter dependence on God, acknowledging God’s supreme goodness and holiness and love and the fact that we do not embody that as we ought This is good for us. It’s also good for us because it focuses our mind on the true, the good, and the beautiful. beautiful. In other words, it focuses our mind on God himself. Go to Psalm 104, where we see these repeated exhortations throughout the latter part of Psalms, to praise the Lord. It says in Psalm, or bless the Lord, Psalm 104, bless the Lord, O my soul. Why? The Lord my God, you are very great and you are clothed with honor and majesty. You cover yourself with light as with the garment, you stretch out the heavens like a curtain, and it goes on and on and on until why we [audio unclear] And it goes on and gives us examples of why we should praise the Lord. Psalm 113, starting in verse 1, it says, praise the Lord, praise O servant the Lord, praise the name of the Lord, bless the name of the Lord from this time and forevermore from the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord’s name is to be praised. Why? For the Lord is high above all nations, that’s why. His glory is above the heavens, that’s why. Who is like our God who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and the earth. He raises the poor out of the dust. He lifts the needy out of the ash. That’s why. And He goes on and on and on. These Psalms exhort us, praise the Lord, bless the Lord, why? And it gives us all these reasons why. And it causes us to focus on what is true, what is good, what is beautiful, ultimately what is all wrapped up in God Himself, and that is good for us. That is good for us. So God is not an egomaniac, but rather by exhorting us to focus on glorifying Him, He’s actually blessing us and doing what is good for us. Now, if all this is true, why then is an ingratitude so common?

If this is true, why do we see so often a lack of praise in the life of Christians?

And I think it can be summed up in one word that’s used often in the Bible, and that is the word forgetfulness. Forgetfulness. What do I mean by forgetfulness? I mean, spiritual, forgetfulness is the failure to apply what we know to what we do.

Spiritual forgetfulness is the failure to apply in the present what we believed in the past. Spiritual forgetfulness is the failure to believe that what God once did, He can do again. We are told in Psalm 103. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul and do not forget. Do not forget. His benefits. Look at Deuteronomy 6. There’s many scriptures, but time doesn’t allow us to look at all of them. the younger generation before they go into the land and a sorting them to train their children and grandchildren and he says in verse 10 so it shall be chapter 6 when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you swore to your fathers to Abraham Isaac Jacob to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build houses full of all good things which you did not fill here not wells which you did not dig vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, this is called grace, right? You didn’t do it. He says, and when you have eaten in her fold, then beware, beware of what? Beware lest you forget, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Chapter 8, We see the similar exhortation. He says this in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy. Verse 7, for the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains, springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, trees, pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land a stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the, the good land which He has given you. Now there you go, Thursday baby. You’re gonna sit down and eat and you’re gonna be full. Here’s what we are to do, ready? When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you. Amen? And then he says, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and judgments and statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them and when you have herds and flocks et cetera, et cetera verse 14 and when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Notice the heart is lifted up the opposite of humility. Become prideful because you have wealth, you have food, you have a nice home. 14, when your heart is lifted up, you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. He says 17, then you say in your heart, My power and might of my hand have gained me this wealth. The opposite of humility, the pride, the arrogance of thinking that what we have is the result of our own hand. Not seeing things as they are, that everything we have comes from God because we are totally dependent on Him. And then you shall remember, remember the Lord your God, It is He who gives you power to get wealth. Why does He do this? That He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day. So when we forget, this results in us thinking that we have earned what we have. In other words, we forget the source of our blessings. We think it’s our power, our might, our wisdom, our good looks, our education, our skill. And the word says it is all a gift of God. A gift of God. Now I know some of you were thinking in the back of your mind, well you don’t understand how hard I work. I do understand. But what the word tells us is that the very strength to work is from God. The skill you have to work is from God. Your job is from God. And you can lose it tomorrow. It all comes from His hand. It is not our power, our might, our wisdom. It is God’s gift to us. And so we forget the source and thus our hearts are lifted up with pride and not humility.

Also forgetting means that we forget the, well let me just say this about the source.

You know, we, when I say we, I’m talking about we, this we, right here. We evangelicals, we middle class evangelicals, us suburban to all our people. We have come to believe that we deserve the good things that were given to us by grace.

We really have come to believe that. But when you look at the scripture, what we deserve is not God’s blessings. The Bible tells us that we are by nature the children of wrath. And that is what our deserve. We do not deserve anything we have. It’s all a gift. So we must remember the source of everything we have is God. And we must remember, secondly, the value. And, what do, what do I mean by this. leads to taking blessings for granted. Let me say it again. We take blessings for granted. We have come to normalize our blessings. And what I mean is that we evangelical Americans think that it’s normal to have a nice house, two cars, four computers, three TVs, and on and on and on and on and on. And that’s normal. six cell phones. That’s normal. Anybody tracking with me? That is not normal. But once you normalize the blessings, you cease to be thankful for them. Once you say, well, everybody’s got that, then it’s no longer of attitude, thank you God for this gift. Because we begin to take it for granted because well that’s just normal. Friends, the wealth that we experience, I know when I say wealth you’re like cringe, some of you cringe because you’re not sure how you’re going to pay your bills next week, I understand. But in light of history and in light of even the world today, how many people barely survive. I mean do you realize that even in America there are millions, not thousands, of millions of people living in poverty. Millions. We live in a historic bubble. America has experienced in the past couple generations more wealth than any society ever experienced at any time in history. Do we understand this? That means God, for whatever reason, puts you in this bubble. God let you be blessed this way. But because we don’t have any historical memory, we forget, we don’t appreciate the wealth that we have. And so when our phone, we have to wait 10 seconds for our phone to load, we complain. It is true. But what we have in terms of wealth in America, what you have, you evangelical Christian, you middle-class Christian, The wealth that you have is not normal. Go visit the homeless downtown and see if it’s normal. Go overseas and see if it’s normal. It’s not normal. So don’tBnormalize it because when you normalize it, you trivialize it and you take it for granted. And if we forget the source, which is God, and if we forget the value, meaning we really forget to appreciate how blessed we are, this leads to boredom and covetousness.

You see what happens is when we forget then we want something that’s newer.

We want something that’s better. We want something that’s brighter. We want something that’s bigger. Forty-eight inches isn’t big enough. It’s got to be 56. Another year later it’s got to be 72. My God let’s build a movie theater in the living room. Let’s make it 10 feet wide. It’s always the next best thing, the next newest thing, the next brightest thing.

Life Does Not Consist in Things

We just got to have more. And that is the fruit of this forgetfulness. It is the fruit of normalizing and trivializing the blessings we have. In other words, it’s the fruit of ingratitude. Because when you’re grateful for what you have, you’re not looking at what you don’t have. And so forgetfulness leads to this boredom with God’s blessings. And as it relates to material things we just want more and then more and then more and then more and then more and then more. And eventually as we pile on more and more and more and more on our lives, we become suffocated under the weight of materialism.

If We Could Only See

But Jesus said a man’s life, a woman’s life, does not consist in the abundance of the things that they possess. When will we ever learn that things never bring happiness? When will we ever learn that things never really bring peace? When will we ever learn that things never really bring joy? Now they can bring excitement. Christmas morning’s fun. But then the newness wears off and the old craving returns for something newer, something better. And so it’s a vicious cycle of always needing, wanting, desiring, lusting, coveting. All because we forgot the source and the value of the blessings God has given us. You know, if we applied the same passion towards spiritual things that we have for material things, how we would be transformed. If only every Christian wanted more, more, more, more Jesus, more God, more spirit, more love, more joy, more righteousness, more holiness, more sacrifice, more obedience, more service, more fruit, amen? That’s the appropriate covetousness. That’s the appropriate passion and desire. Ironically, we can normalize our spiritual gifts, but instead of producing a spiritual craving, they just produce boredom. Jesus Christ died for our sins to save us from the wrath of God, from the eternal pains of hell. That’s cool. You see, we don’t see. If we could only see, and we can, we can see. [audio unclear] should be doing, excuse me, is that we should be spending time reflecting on all that God has done for us, all that God has given us, both spiritually and materially. But when we gather on Thanksgiving and we eat enormous amounts of food, we’ve no, we put all of this bounty out there. We put the turkey and the potatoes and the bread and the corn and the cranberry sauce and the stuffing and all the other things that you love that are there, the sweet potatoes. When we put it all out on a table, you know what we’re doing? We’re setting an altar of worship. And what we’re doing is we’re displaying it all, not just to gorge ourselves, but we’re displaying it all to say this, this comes from the hand of God. Look at everything that God has given me. That’s what we’re doing at Thanksgiving.

So we need to take time and remember and reflect on all of our blessings material but also spiritual. This means renewing our minds according to the Scripture. If our minds are renewed we will not be complaining and grumbling. It will not happen, because we will see things as they truly are. So reflect and remember the many blessings God has given you. I want to read a quote and I’ll be done in a minute. Now some of you are going to leave here and complain that I went long. See, you’re gonna miss the whole point. This is from the private devotions of Lancelot Andrews, one of my favorite books.

And he’s helped me realize a lot of things. There’s a section here, a prayer of praise. He says, oh, oh Lord my God, He’s giving thanks. Here’s what He’s giving thanks for. You ready? I praise you for my being, life, reason, for nurture, protection, guidance, for education, civil rights, religion, for thy gifts of grace, nature, fortune, for redemption, regeneration, catechizing, for my call and recall, yay, many calls besides, for thy forbearance, long suffering, long, long suffering toward me. many years up to this time. For all good things received, successes granted me, good things done, for the use of things present, for that promise and my hope of the enjoyment of good things to come. For my parents, honest and good, teachers, kind, benef-factors never to be forgotten, religious friends, congenial, hearers, thoughtful, friends, sincere, domestics faithful, for all who have advantaged me by writings, sermons, conversation, prayers, patterns, rebukes, injuries, for all these and all others which I know and which I know not, open, hidden, remembered, forgotten, done when I wished and when I wished not, I confess to thee and will confess, I bless thee and will bless, I give thanks to thee and will give thanks all the days of my life. Amen. What a prayer. What a prayer. I could. Just a little more. This is a good one. You got to hear this. This is how we had we got to learn how to pray like this. So called an act of thanksgiving. It would rather behoove me O Lord a sinner and impenitent and so holy unworthy to lie prostrate before thee and with tears groanings to entreat thee pardon of my sins then to praise thee with polluted mouth yet trusting in thy innate goodness I will adore thee oh receive thou the praises that is in my heart to sing I praise thee I bless thee I worship thee I glorify thee thou art worthy O Lord to receive the praises and thanks whom I a sinner am unworthy to invoke, and to name and even to conceive in my heart. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has created and brought me forth into this life, and has ordered that I should be a living soul and not senseless matter, a man, not a brute, civilized, not barbarous, free, not a slave, legitimate, not spurious, of good parentage, not sprung up from vile extraction. Endued with sense, sound in sense is not blind or deaf, sound in limbs not halt or maim, educated not exposed, a Christian not a pagan, preserved from dangers and infamy, not overwhelmed thereby. In the days of peace not tossed into tempestuous struggles, of competent fortune so that I neither need to flatter nor to borrow, set free from many sins. Endued with the gifts of grace and redemption and calling, with the gifts of nature and fortune, who according to thy great mercy has begotten me again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ unto an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that faith is not away reserved in heaven for me, who has blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ, who comforts me in all my tribulation, that as the passions of Christ abound in me so also my consolation should abound through Christ. To thee, O God of my Father’s, I give thanks, thee I praise, who has in some measure endued me with wisdom and courage and has showed me that which I requested of thee and has opened my mouth and has caused me to be the work of thy hands and the price of thy blood and the image of thy countenance and the servant of thy purchase and the seal of thy name and the child of thine adoption and the temple of the Holy Spirit and member of thy church. Give God the glory. Everything that we have and everything that we are is from the hand of a gracious God.

Amen. And as we go into this Thanksgiving season, let us reflect and let us remember.

And let us learn to bless the Lord, O my soul, and praise Him continually. Let’s stand together. I don’t want to go into worship season. I want to go into a time of reflection as we close and next week we’re having a Thanksgiving worship service where you can come and publicly praise the Lord for his many benefits but in order to do that appropriately we must reflect first so let’s just take a moment before I pray that you might contemplate the many blessings God has bestowed upon you. Father, I ask for the glory of your name and the name of your Son Jesus that you might aid us in bringing to remembrance remembrance who you are and what you have done for us so that we Lord might appropriately praise you and thank you that we might walk in gratitude and let’s bring glory to your name. Forgive us Lord for the times that we complain. Forgive us for murmuring at hardship. Forgive us for repining at our losses. Forgive us for forgetting your many benefits. Renew in us God a desire to know you. Renew in us a desire to honor and glorify you. Create in us, God, a clean heart. Create in us a hunger for you and your word. I thank you, Father, that all of this is possible because you’ve given us your Holy Spirit, that we are your temple and your Spirit dwells in us to renew us, to transform us, and to use us to bring you I pray that this week, in spite of the stresses of the holidays, in spite of the cost of the celebrations, that God we would walk worthy of you, and in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And all God’s people said, Amen.

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